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Meatballs served at Town Hall restaurant at 342 Howard street. The chef is Mitchell Rosenthal.
Event on 1/29/05 in San Francisco. Craig Lee / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT

Photo: Craig Lee

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Meatballs served at Town Hall restaurant at...

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Meatballs served at A16 restaurant, 2355 Chestnut street. Chef is Christophe Hille.
Event on 1/29/05 in San Francisco. Craig Lee / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT

Today's cover story is the second in the Food section's series of Cooking in Common, an exploration of foods that know no boundaries. In the Bay Area, where we have the world on our plates, meatballs can range from Greek kephtedes to Vietnamese nem nuong. Over the next few months we'll look at other cross-cultural dishes to discover the cullinary threads that connect us all.

Very few foods seamlessly cross cultures, but meatballs are one of them. Around the world, reasons for eating them are similar. They're made from simple, easily available ingredients. They're economical -- dropped into soup, spooned over pasta or potatoes, or wrapped in rice paper, a little meat can stretch into a full meal. They're familiar and, most importantly, they taste good -- which ultimately translates into a food that never goes out of style.

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This notion is not lost on Bay Area chefs and restaurateurs, who recognize the pull of this comfort food. But it's no longer just about a heaping plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Greek kephtedes, Mexican albondigas, Vietnamese nem nuong and Italian polpette are some of the global options available on restaurant menus.

Although meatballs themselves are universal, what varies are the extra ingredients and how the meatballs are cooked -- fried, grilled, braised, sauteed, boiled or roasted. In its most basic form, a meatball starts out with ground meat -- pork, beef, veal, lamb or a combination. Starch -- usually bread or breadcrumbs, sometimes potato starch or rice -- goes in for binding. Eggs or other liquid contribute moisture; herbs, spices and cheese add flavor.

At A16 restaurant in San Francisco, it's all about extras. "I don't like to call the ingredients we use leftovers," says chef Christophe Hille, "because it is all high-quality food. We just don't want it to go to waste, so we make meatballs once a week."

The restaurant offers meatballs on the menu each Monday, which started when a meatball special one Monday night was such a hit that it just made sense to continue it. He didn't reinvent the wheel with his recipe - it is an old-fashioned polpette, an Italian meatball made with fresh herbs and other seasonings, cheeses, bread, eggs and meat. He also adds prosciutto scraps, which imparts a deep flavor. And diners love them.

"We sell twice as many meatballs as anything else on Mondays," says Hille, with a laugh, "and we definitely have our repeat offenders. I guess it just strikes a chord. It's something about that home-cooked taste."

Mitchell Rosenthal, chef/co-owner of Town Hall restaurant in San Francisco, agrees. "I've learned over the years to try and take my ego out of the food, and just give people what they want," he says. "And what they want is familiarity."

Although Town Hall's menu is American, Rosenthal's roasted veal meatballs are also influenced by other cultures. "I actually got the inspiration for the recipe from a Russian dish called veal pojarski," he recalls, which he prepared when he worked at the Four Seasons in New York in the 1980s. "We used to soak white bread in milk for the texture, grind it together with the veal and spices, and re-form it into the shape of a veal chop."

At Town Hall, he's adapted the recipe by adding Italian ingredients in the form of ricotta and Parmesan cheeses, and serves the meatballs with green peppercorn sauce over mashed potatoes.

Americans and Europeans are used to large portions of meat, but elsewhere, that's not the case.

In Latino cultures, for example, meat is always served in small portions, so sopa de albondigas (meatball soup) is considered a full meal. Albondigas, the Spanish word for meatball, is derived from the Arabic "al-bunduq," meaning hazelnut, which describes the meatball's small size. The Chronicle's North to South columnist Jacqueline Higuera McMahan likes hers walnut-sized. "A few small meatballs floating in broth is a great way of stretching for the home cook in the Latino culture," says McMahan.

Albondigas traditionally are a mixture of ground pork and sirloin, flavored with mint. The herb is not often used elsewhere in Mexican cooking, but, McMahan asserts, "You'll be hard-pressed to find a Mexican grandmother who doesn't use it in her albondigas."

Swedish cooks also make cocktail-sized meatballs, although for different reasons. "It keeps them moist," says Ola Fendert, Swedish-born chef of Oola in San Francisco. "If you make them larger, you have to add a lot of other ingredients so as not to dry them out. Swedish meatballs are very simple and straightforward."

The basic recipe is simply good-quality ground meat, milk, breadcrumbs, onions, salt, pepper -- and allspice, the flavor that sets them apart. Fendert also recalls that his grandmother used to add soda water to her meatballs, a trick that translates into a crispy coating when the meatballs are cooked. Swedish meatballs are traditionally served with brown pan gravy, sweet lingonberries and boiled potatoes.

Although these meatballs are on every cafe menu in Sweden, one of the only places to try them in Northern California is at IKEA, the Swedish furniture chain. Cindy Van Der Heyden, food and beverage manager at the Emeryville store, says their popularity is astounding.

"On an average Saturday," she says, "we sell close to 1,000 orders of the meatballs." They come in orders of 10, 15 or 20 -- at least 10,000 meatballs for those who are counting. Frozen meatballs, gravy and lingonberries are also available for purchase at IKEA's retail shop.

While most cultures mix meats, some only use the protein that is most widely available in their country. In Asia, that means pork. Shanghai-style lion's head meatballs are formed large, and often contain tofu as well to impart a fluffier texture.

In Vietnam, the pork meatballs (called nem nuong) are tiny, and grilled on skewers.

The meat is coaxed through a food processor and mixed with potato starch for a springy texture. They're pulled off the skewer and wrapped in rice paper or lettuce with shredded carrots, cucumbers, rice vermicelli, star fruit and herbs. According to Vietnamese-born Thy Tran, The Chronicle Cooking School Culinary Director, it's all about the vegetables and herbs.

In Greece and parts of the Middle East, lamb is the meat of choice. Main- course sized meatballs are known as kephtedes, while the dainty cocktail sized rounds are called kephtedakia. San Francisco's Kokkari Estiatorio serves a medium-size patty called soutzoukakia.

"The meatballs are incredibly popular," says executive chef Erik Cosselmon, who serves them in a traditional compote that changes with the season. "Right now it's being made with Greek olives and tomatoes," Cosselmon says, "but they are equally as good with a basic mix of oregano, olive oil and lemon juice." It's yet another nod to the simplicity of this universal dish.

And across cultures, simplicity is one concept that never goes out of style.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Whisk together the fish sauce, oil and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Stir in the shallot and garlic; season with pepper. Add the pork and pound the meat into the marinade until evenly coated.

Refrigerate and marinate for 1 hour.

Place the pork between the palms of your hands and squeeze tightly to get rid of the excess liquid (there will be less if you are using ground pork).

Put the drained meat in a container and place in the freezer for 1 hour.

Put the partially frozen pork in a food processor and pulse to loosen the meat, about 2 minutes. Add the potato starch and continue pulsing until mixture has a firm, paste-like consistency, about 5 minutes.

Pinch off about 1 tablespoon of the pork paste and form it into a ball. Repeat the process until you have used up the paste. You should have 20 meatballs.

Light a fire in a grill.

Depending on how long the skewers are, slide 3 to 5 meatballs onto each skewer. Grill over a barbecue (make sure the flames have subsided and coals are red with white ashes) or on a well-oiled grill pan over medium-high heat until the meatballs are cooked through, rolling them around in the pan, about 6 minutes total.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and chiles and stir-fry until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add the ground peanuts and stir until they release some of their natural oil, about 5 minutes more.

Add the chicken broth, coconut milk, hoisin sauce, fish sauce and sugar, and bring just to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the oil from the peanuts starts to surface, about 15 minutes. Transfer the sauce to a heatproof serving bowl, garnish with reserved chopped peanuts and serve.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Arrange the lettuce (if using) or rice papers, cucumbers, carrots and star fruit on a large serving platter.

Place the vermicelli in a dish with lukewarm water to cover. Let soak until pliable, about 20 minutes. Bring a pot filled with water to a boil over high heat. Drain the vermicelli and, working in batches, place them in a sieve and lower into the boiling water. Untangle the noodles with chopsticks and boil until tender but firm, about 3 seconds. Drain and place on the plate with the other ingredients.

Keeping the stems and leaves intact, rinse the cilantro, mint, basil and saw leaves thoroughly, drain on paper towels, and arrange in individual piles on the platter.

INSTRUCTIONS:

For the meatballs: Preheat the oven to 400°.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground pork, beef and prosciutto by hand and season generously with salt, pepper flakes, fennel seed and oregano. Add the onion, garlic, parsley and Parmesan cheese and mix by hand. Put the bread cubes in a food processor and process into fine crumbs. Add the breadcrumbs, the ricotta and milk to the meat mixture and continue to mix by hand. Add the eggs, stirring until barely incorporated (do not overmix). Form the mixture into about two dozen 1 1/2-inch balls and place in an oiled roasting pan. Bake until browned, about 15 minutes. When done, reduce the oven temperature to 300°.

For the braising liquid: Meanwhile, in a large, ovenproof saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion, carrot and bay leaf and cook until the carrot is softened and the onion is translucent, about 6 minutes. Deglaze with white wine, then add the tomatoes, stock, basil and oregano. Heat for 5 minutes and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Drain the fat off of the meatballs and pour the braising liquid over them (they should barely be covered). Bake the meatballs at 300° for 2 1/2 hours. Allow to cool in the braising liquid. Skim off the excess fat.

To serve, reheat the meatballs in the braising liquid, finishing the dish with Parmesan and olive oil.

Serves 6

Note: Roughly chop a 4-ounce piece of prosciutto (ends work well) and grind in the food processor.

INSTRUCTIONS:

For the meatballs: Soak the bread in milk for 10 minutes or until soggy. Drain the milk and squeeze the bread out slightly. Mix the bread with the veal, pork, beef, salt, pepper, Parmigiano-Reggiano, ricotta and parsley. Roll the mixture into meatballs the size of a golf ball.

Warm a nonstick pan over medium high heat and add the olive oil. Fry the meatballs until crispy on the outside and cooked through on the inside, about 12 minutes. At this point you can hold them in a warm oven while the sauce cooks.

For the sauce: Heat a pan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the shallots and cook until caramelized. Add the mustard and sherry vinegar and reduce to half. Add the brandy and reduce to burn off the alcohol, about 3 minutes. Add the red wine and port and reduce to half. Add the broth and reduce to half. Whisk in the cream, butter and green peppercorns. Reheat gently, strain if desired, and add salt to taste.

INSTRUCTIONS:

For the sopa: Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat and add the tomatoes. Saute for several minutes. Add the garlic, chile powder, cumin seeds, broth, onion, celery, carrots, potato, turnip and chayote. Simmer for 15 minutes, then add salt to taste.

For the albondigas: Combine the ground pork, ground sirloin, egg, onion, garlic, parsley, mint, oregano, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Use your hands to gently mix. Wet your hands and form meatballs, a little larger than walnuts. Drop them into the simmering soup and cook, partially covered, for 20 minutes. Ladle into bowls, serving at least 3 meatballs to each person.

This recipe comes from the grandmother of Swedish-born Ola Fendert, chef/owner of Oola restaurant in San Francisco. It is commonly served with lingonberries, available at stores specializing in German and Scandinavian foods.

INGREDIENTS:

For the meatballs

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup milk

6 ounces ground beef

6 ounces ground pork

6 ounces ground veal

1/4 cup soda water

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon grated raw onion

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the sauce

1 3/4 cup beef stock

1 1/2 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup cold water

1/2 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

For the meatballs: In a medium-size bowl, soak the breadcrumbs in the milk for 10 minutes. Mix the meats in with the breadcrumbs and add all the other ingredients, except the butter. The mixture will be a bit wet and sticky. Using your hands dipped in cold water, form the mixture into small meatballs of uniform size, about 1 inch in diameter. Heat half of the butter in a frying pan over medium heat and brown the meatballs, a few at a time. After half the meatballs are done, add the remaining butter and continue. When browned, put into a medium-size saucepan and set aside.

For the sauce: Raise heat to high and deglaze the pan that the meatballs cooked in with 3/4 cup of the beef stock. Add to the saucepan holding the meatballs and simmer for 8 minutes. Remove the meatballs from the pan and set aside; add the remaining cup of stock and bring to a boil. In a small dish, mix the flour and water to form a thin paste and add it to the boiling sauce, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the cream, and simmer for another 2 minutes until the sauce is slightly thickened. Add the reserved meatballs to rewarm prior to serving. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve the meatballs with the sauce, lingonberries and boiled potatoes.

This recipe for meatball patties is on the menu at Kokkario Estiatorio in San Francisco.

INGREDIENTS:

Sauce

1 teaspoon cumin seed, toasted

2 cups canned whole peeled tomatoes

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup thinly sliced white onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1/2 cup white wine

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Pepper to taste

Meatballs

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/2 pound ground lamb

1/2 pound ground pork

4 sprigs fresh mint, chopped

3 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1/2 cup panko crumbs

1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup sliced pitted green olives, for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS:

For the sauce: Crush the cumin with a mortar and pestle. Put the tomatoes in a bowl and crush by hand. Heat a medium-size saucepan over medium heat then add the oil. Add the onion, garlic, cumin and salt and saute until soft. Add the oregano and wine and bring to a boil. Add the tomatoes and their juice and the tomato paste and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, or until the mixture is reduced to a thickened, chunky sauce. Season with pepper and more salt, if necessary.

For the meatballs: Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent. Remove from heat and let the onion cool completely.

Whisk together the egg yolk and mustard in a medium bowl, add the meats and mix well by hand. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the cooled onions, and mix lightly. Form into 1/2-inch thick patties using about 1/3 cup of the mixture for each meatball.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over high heat. Add the meatballs and sear for 3 minutes on each side.

Put meatballs on a serving dish and cover with sauce. Garnish with olives.